The Tucson Theatre Announcements List is a monitored e-mail list. Notices from Tucson area theatre companies, filmmakers and others are forwarded to the list members. These notices include auditions, casting calls, openings and other announcements of interest to actors, directors, techies and theatre lovers in our community. This Blog contains an archive of recent posts to the list. For more information go to http://tucsonstage.com

Please note the dates for Reasons: The House Burned Down have changed to November 5th and 6th. Thank you

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Live Theatre Workshop's Etcetera Series

Proudly announces its 2016 - 2017 Season

Saturday November 5, 10:30PM

Sunday November 6, 9:30PM

REASONS: THE HOUSE BURNED DOWN

By Diana Lynn Small

Directed by Gretchen Dingman Wirges

Tiffany has a medical condition that makes her smile ALL the time, which makes it difficult for her to communicate her emotions regarding the loss of her home and family due to a fire. Her ex-boyfriend, a contractor, and a blind alcoholic each force Tiffany to deal with how her condition affects her interactions with the world around her.

This play is part of a nationwide game of telephone. It will be the fourth production of the play in which the producing company receives only a video of the previous production and is given the task of creating a work that is original yet keeps the intent and message of the piece intact. This production will be the final piece in Joyelle Bell's PhD dissertation.

Saturday February 4, 10:30PM

Sunday February 5, 7:30PM

NAKED

By Michael Fenlason

Directed by Michael Fenlason

Joan is naked - stripped of her devices, relationships, and false hopes, she moves through America hiding from loved ones and other authorities. She leaves messages across the great internet of America in rants and riffs as sacred and profane as the landscape.

Saturday May 20, 10:30PM

Sunday May 21, 7:30PM

IDENTITY

By Chloe Loos and Allie Knuth

This original piece of devised theatre uses movement, drumming and dialogue to attempt to pinpoint how we create identity. This show asks the audience to consider what draws people to the groups that create their public identity and how others' assumptions of one's identity can shape our own reality.

We want to hear your story!FST! has featured more than 70 unique storytellers, many of whom never told a story onstage before. We are always excited to welcome newcomers! Women and transgender folks of all ages, sizes, ethnicities and abilities are welcome to submit their stories.

Ask a Storyteller:Email storytelling@fstorytellers.com if you have any questions, or send us your FST! story idea or work-in-progress for an upcoming prompt if you would like feedback from an experienced FST! storyteller before our submission deadline.

Arriving like crumpled up dispatches from the war zone of broken hearts, “[sic]” spreads out across the stage of Live Theatre Workshop, resembling nothing so much as a series of skirmishes over tattered territory and a call to “fix bayonets!”

In the program notes, director Maryann Green describes “[sic]” as “a play with just the right amount of heart, cynicism, humor and peculiarity.” Especially peculiarity, I might add.

To tell the truth, this play by Melissa James Gibson deserves a better title. Maybe something like “Waiting For Monty Python” or “The Incredible Lightness of Non Sequitor.” But maybe that last one is just as bad as “[sic]”.

Among publishers of the printed word, [sic] is a Latin acronym that indicates the preceding is a phrase as it is intended to appear – regardless of any commonly accepted rules of grammar, logic or common sense.

Which certainly describes the playwright's intent...to represent the tangled desires and defensive tactics of three losers in their late 20s who are all single, living in side by side by side flats of a down at the heels apartment building.

Even though not much is happening at the moment, nearly all their adult lives are stretching out before them. Virtually anything could happen, and some of it will. This is the suspense that keeps everyone hanging on.

Theo (Steve Wood) hopes it will happen to him. Even though he is geeky to the hilt, Theo's impossible dreams include Babette (Samantha Cormier) who lives just two doors down the hall, near one of those old-fashioned windows you can actually slide open and closed.

Babette is a writer described as being an expert in some obscure field nobody else knows anything about. She's always trying to find more money to finish her book.

Theo's most prized possession is a small, battery powered keyboard on which he is composing theme music for an amusement park ride.

In the middle apartment lives Frank (Matthew C. Copley), a fragile soul whose grip on reality is even more tenuous. He's also gay, and suffering through the early stages of heartbreak.

Even more poignant is Frank's conviction he was meant to be an auctioneer. You know, like the tobacco auctioneers with that rumbling chant nobody can understand.

Frank is always practicing tongue twister phrases to limber up his powers of pronunciation so when he gets to auctioneer school in Kansas City, he'll be ready.

But this background is just the texture, the flavor, the wind direction from which these three characters meet their daily challenges.

Structurally, the play is a string of scenes presented without intermission, reminiscent of “Seinfeld” in that there is not a plot so much as an atmosphere, a pastiche of innocence and weariness.

All three actors are LTW favorites, accomplished professionals who know from the inside of their own lives the same longing for some sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.

Roadrunner Theatre Company is thrilled to extend their hit production "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" to Oro Valley patrons at The Gaslight Music Hall! This witty musical revue tackles modern love in all its forms and traces the overall arc of relationships throughout the course of a life. Directed by Jose "Chach" Snook and supported by Musical Director, Geoff Gale and Violinist, Callie Hutchinson, this RTC production will prove to be another successful and memorable play.

It’s election season and help is on the way with “The Old Pueblo Radio Show”, a new old-fashioned radio variety show produced by Arizona Daily Star cartoonist David Fitzsimmons and the Arroyo Cafe Players, on Sunday, September 11th, at 2 P.M., at the Rialto Theater. Garrison Keillor eat your heart out! Come enjoy the live taping of this musical comedy extravaganza set to be broadcast by NPR 89.1. Featuring special guests Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and a surprise mystery guest, with sound effects wizard Marty Bishop, The Grandsons of the Pioneers, Jay Taylor, “Rosa” and The Arroyo Cafe Players, all under the musical direction of Lindsey McHugh. Don’t miss this Tucson holiday tradition!

TUCSON, Ariz. (Aug. 30, 2016): What happens when Queen Elizabeth dies? Is Prince Charles ready to ascend to the throne? Is England ready for him? This bracingly provocative and outrageously entertaining new play makes its regional premiere when Arizona Theatre Company opens its 50th anniversary season with Mike Bartlett's award-winning exploration of the people underneath the crowns, King Charles III, Sept. 10-30 at the Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. The 2016-17 season is sponsored by I. Michael and Beth Kasser.

Drawing on the style and structure of a Shakespearean history play, but with a modern verve, a comic subplot and even the occasional appearance of a significant ghost, the story follows Charles after the death of current Queen Elizabeth. In his first official act on the throne, Charles refuses to sign a bill already passed by Parliament limiting the rights of the press in invading personal privacy. An ironic action in light of his first wife's death fleeing paparazzi, Charles stands his ground and political firestorm ensues.

Described by Ben Brantley in The New York Times as a "dazzling presumptuous drama, set in and around Buckingham Palace in a highly foreseeable future," King Charles III won the 2014 Critic's Circle Theatre Award for Best New Play and earned five 2016 Tony Award and three Drama Desk Award nominations, including Best Play (Tony) and Outstanding Play (Drama Desk). ATC's production will be the first of a number of American productions of this recent Broadway hit.

ATC's production of King Charles III brings back acclaimed director Matt August (The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord). It stars Peter Van Norden (The Sunshine Boys and Inventing Van Gogh) returning to the ATC stage to play Charles. The rest of actors playing the Royal Family include Dylan Saunders as Harry, Adam Haas Hunter as William, Kate Maher Hyland as Kate and Cathy Dresbach, one of the state's most acclaimed performers, making her ATC debut as Camilla.

King Charles III will be followed by Act of God (Oct. 22 – Nov. 12); Fiddler on the Roof (Dec. 3-31); The River Bride (Jan. 14-Feb. 4) Ring of Fire (March 4-25); Holmes and Watson, a new Jeffrey Hatcher play commissioned by ATC (April 15-May 6 in Tucson).

Cathy Dresbach (Camilla) has enjoyed a long career in Arizona as a stage actress and commercial voice talent. Some favorite theatre credits include Calendar Girls, Noises Off, Tribes, Always...Patsy Cline, The Women, (Phoenix Theatre); Good People, boom, Angels in America, Nickel and Dimed, The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow (Actors Theatre of Phoenix); Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Theater Works); The Immigrant, Kindertransport, Fiddler on the Roof (Arizona Jewish Theatre); The Yellow Boat, Still Life with Iris (Childsplay). Film credits include "The Imposter" and "Anastasia." She spent five years writing and performing on the iconic television program, The Wallace and Ladmo Show.

Adam Haas Hunter (William) Regional credits include: Abundance at South Coast Repertory and The Whipping Man at The Pasadena Playhouse and South Coast Repertory. Mr. Hunter has appeared at A Noise Within, the Getty Villa, Kirk Douglas Theatre, The Theatre @ Boston Court, Theatre Banshee, UCLA Live, and Ulysses Theatre in Croatia, to name a few. Mr. Hunter has won or been nominated for Ovation, Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, LA Weekly and Garland awards. He is a graduate of California Institute of the Arts.

Kate Maher Hyland (Kate) was most recently seen in the role of Jackie-O in Wendy McLeod's House of Yes at the Zephyr Theatre. Other LA Theatre credits include the world premiere of Everything You Touch at Theatre@Boston Court; The Liar, The Crucible, You Can't Take It With You at the Antaeus Theatre Company; I'll Be Back Before Midnight at The Colony Theatre; The Bungler at A Noise Within Theatre; and A Stubborn Woman at Los Angeles Theatre Center.

Tickets for King Charles III start at $25 and are subject to change depending on time, date and section, and are available at www.arizonatheatre.org or by calling the box office at (520) 622-2823. Discounts are available for seniors and active military. A $10 student ticket pricing is now available for all performances. Half-price rush tickets are available for balcony seating for all performances one hour prior to curtain at the ATC box office (subject to availability). Pay What You Can performance is NEED DATE at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available for a suggested $10 donation. (Tickets must be purchased at the Temple of Music and Art starting one hour prior to curtain. Tickets are first-come, first served. Cash only. Two tickets maximum per person.) For discounts for groups of 10 or more, call (520) 622-2823.

Arizona Theatre Company offers accessibility services for patrons with disabilities for select performances. Audio Description provides patrons with vision loss a running audio description of the movement and activities onstage through an infrared broadcast system. An Audio-Described performance is offered on Friday, Sept. 30 at 2 p.m. Interested patrons with vision loss may request a tactile tour one hour prior to curtain. American Sign Language Interpretation is presented by professional, theatrically-trained ASL-interpreters for people who have deafness or hearing impairment. An ASL-interpreted performance is offered on Thursday, Sept. 29 at 7:30 p.m. Open captioning allows patrons to read the play's dialogue on an LED screen as the play progresses. An open captioned performance is offered on Friday, Sept. 30 at 2 p.m. For open-captioned or ASL-interpreted performances, patrons should request seats best suited to ASL interpretation or captioning when purchasing tickets. Large print and Braille playbills and infrared listening amplification devices are also available at every ATC performance with reservation. TTY access for the box office is available in Tucson at (520) 884-9723 or via Arizona Relay at (800) 367-8939 (TTY/ASCII).

Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) is the preeminent fully professional theatre in the state of Arizona committed to inspiring, engaging, and entertaining - one moment, one production, and one audience at a time. Boasting the largest seasonal subscriber base in the performing arts in Arizona, ATC is the only resident company in the U.S. that is fully based in two cities providing its wide array of programming and community outreach across the region. Now in its 50th season, more than 130,000 people a year attend our performances at the historic Temple of Music and Art in Tucson, and the elegant Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix. Each season of home-grown productions reflects the rich variety of world drama—from classics to contemporary plays, from musicals to new works—along with a wide array of community outreach programs, educational opportunities, access initiatives and new play programs. Designated The State Theatre of Arizona, ATC is led by Artistic Director David Ira Goldstein and a dedicated Board of Trustees.

CASTING CALL:Unknown Format is currently casting their proof of concept project, New West.New West is a story set in an old west world, where the technology is both magical and horrific. Auditions will be held Saturday September 3rd, by appointment only. Filming will take place in Tucson.Paid: $50.00 for the day. Role to be cast:Ren: 20-35 MALE or FEMALE: a rugged cowboy survivor of the new west, who would rather put you in the ground then take a compliment.If interested please email headshot and resume to UFPcasting@gmail.com or Private Message us on Facebook at @unknownformatproductions

Roadrunner Theatre Company is thrilled to extend their hit production "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" to Oro Valley patrons at The Gaslight Music Hall! This witty musical revue tackles modern love in all its forms and traces the overall arc of relationships throughout the course of a life. Directed by Jose "Chach" Snook and supported by Musical Director, Geoff Gale and Violinist, Callie Hutchinson, this RTC production will prove to be another successful and memorable play. This performance stars husband and wife Jose "Chach" Snook and Jodi Darling with Kelli Workman and Tyler Wright.

*Written by Joe DiPietro and music by Jimmy RobertsTickets are $25 with discounts available to students, seniors, and military.

I Love You, You're Perfect, Now ChangePresented by Roadrunner Theatre Company

CALL FOR INFORMATION AND TO AUDIT A CLASS 520-207-8948 -- 520-468-1664

Philip G. Bennett, Artistic Director, is a graduate from the renowned American Stanislavsky Theatre in New York, where he served as actor, instructor and Assistant Artistic Director to Sonia Moore, émigré actress/director from the Third Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre. Mr. Bennett founded the San Francisco Theatre Academy in 1976 and is a three-time recipient of the prestigious Hollywood DramaLogue Award.

Graduate students appear regularly in film and television, and are accepted in conservatories and repertory companies in the US and the UK.

Mr. Bennett's co-authored new textbookExperiencing Stanislavsky Today: Training and Rehearsal for the Psychophysical Actor, Routledge Academic Publishers, London and New York is available at Amazon.com world-wide.

Pride and Prejudice. Emma. Sense and Sensibility. These are just a few of the popular novels written by British novelist Jane Austen. Although Austen never received recognition for her works during her lifetime, she has become a household name in literary fiction, with several of her novels inspiring movies and television series.

The Comedy Playhouse's Kristen Keck has engineered our next production, which will be a a fabulous reader's theater production featuring short synopses and staged readings of Austen's works. Join us as our actors take on Austen's sharp intellect and understated wit with our production of Simply Austen-tatious.

This production will open on September 16, 2016 at 7:30 and run through October 2. Tickets for our reader's theater productions are $16 for general admission and $14 for students, seniors, and military. You can make reservations for seats by calling 520-270-9310 or by emailing us at thecomedyplayhouse@gmail.com.

There are still two weekends left to see James Gooden's Upton Abbey! This Downton Abbey-esque farce is guaranteed to have you in stitches. Who is Giles? What will happen to the Upton Abbey manor house? Will Aunt Julia ever get her cup of tea? Find out! This show runs through September 11. Call or email us to make your reservations today!

WHOSE LIVE ANYWAY?

Join the cast from the Emmy Nominated TV ShowWhose Line Is It AnywayforWhose Live Anyway? It’s 90 minutes of hilarious improvised comedy and song.

See some of your favoriteWhose Linegames plus some new ones. Bring your suggestions and you might be asked to join the cast onstage!

It’s always a new show and it’s always hilarious!

Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Jeff B. Davis and Joel Murray leave their audiences gasping for breath with their quick, interactive responses and witty scenes, invented on the spot, right before your eyes. Professional improv at it’s very finest!

MEET THE CAST

Ryan Stiles

Ryan Stiles began his comedy career at a Punchlines Comedy Club in Vancouver in his last year of high school. He was a good student but had flexibility in his schedule which gave him time to perform at night plus work part time for his Dad at a fish plant. He quit high school a couple months short of graduation to work in comedy.

In spite of his parents objections, he worked in comedy and was able to support himself for several years performing, writing and working on Television in Canada.

In 1986 he became part of the cast of The Second City during Expo 86 in Vancouver. After that run ended he moved to LA to briefly join the Second City cast there and then moved to Toronto where he was chosen to be a cast member of The Second City mainstage company. It was there that he honed his amazing improvisational skills.

After a couple years in Toronto, Ryan moved to LA once again and landed several guest roles on The Garry Shandling Show, Mad About You, Who’s The Boss?, Weird Science, The John Larroquette Show and Murphy Brown and of course the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? came along.

In 1995 he landed a regular role on The Drew Carey Show which lasted several seasons on ABC. It was Ryan and Drew that pitched Whose Line to ABC. Drew hosted it and Ryan became a starring fixture on Whose Line even drawing blood for his comedic efforts in one episode.Greg Proops

“Here he is, though, in front of a live audience each week, bravely recording some of the boldest comedy on the podcasting frontier right now.”

-Rolling Stone Magazine

Greg Proops is a stand up comic from San Francisco. He lives in Hollywood. It’s not that bad. Really. The Proopdog is best known for his unpredictable appearances on Whose Line is it Anyway? He can be seen on the New Season on the CW.Professor Proops has a hit Podcast called The Smartest Man in the World. He has recorded it live in Australia, New Zealand, Montreal, Edinburgh, Dublin, San Francisco, Oslo, Amsterdam, Austin, London, Paris aboard a ship in the Caribbean and somehow, Cleveland. Find it at Proopcast.com or iTunes.

Greg has lent his voice to Star Wars the Phantom Menace and was Bob the Builder.Mr. Proops has been a guest on Red Eye, The Late, Late Show and Chelsea Lately on E!You may Socially Network with Greg on Twitter at @gregproops and tumblr at proopcast.com

Jeff Davis

Jeff B. Davis is a multi-talented actor/comedian, born and bred in Los Angeles, CA. His career began at age 4 as “Linus” in a terribly ill-advised, all-children production ofYou’re a Good Man, Charlie Brownat the Goundlings Theater. On opening night, Jeff vomited all over his director, then turned and took the stage. At age 9, Jeff was cast as “Louis” in Yul Brynner’s final production ofThe King and I, which toured nationally and closed on Broadway when Jeff was 11, after nearly 800 vomit-free performances.

In high school Jeff began improvising with Los AngelesComedySportz, eventually learning the skills he’d later need as a frequent guest on the hit television showWhose Line is it, Anyway?Jeff has a long list of TV credits, including Steven Martin’s NBC comedyThe Downer Channel, WB’sOn the Spot, NBC’sHappy Family, theSarah Silverman Show,Drew Carey’s Green Screen ShowandImprovaganza, to name just a few. Jeff spends many nights of the year performing live with “Whose Line” stars Ryan Stiles and Greg Proops to standing ovations all over North America. When he’s not on stage, Jeff is in Hollywood trying to break George Clooney’s record of “most failed television pilots.”

Jeff is currently a guest on CW’s reboot ofWhose Line is it, Anyway?, and can be heard on the highly-acclaimed, deeply weirdHarmontownpodcast with NBC’sCommunitycreator Dan Harmon. Listen at your own risk.

Feel free to bother Jeff on Twitter @JeffBryanDavis.

Joel Murray

Joel Murray is the youngest of the funny Murray brothers and like Bill and Brian, Joel is an alumnus of the famous Second City Chicago. Joel has joined Whose Live Anyway as the main go-to guy.

Joel starred in the 1990 television series Grand, the 1991 comedy series Pacific Station, Love and War as Ray Litvak, and as Pete Cavanaugh for several seasons on Dharma & Greg.

Joel Murray’s first film role was in the 1986 comedy film One Crazy Summer as George Calamari. His other roles include the 1988 comedy film Scrooged, with his brothers Bill Brian & John. He starred in the 1992 movie Shakes the Clown.

In the first, second, and fourth seasons of the Emmy Winning AMC TV series Mad Men Joel Murray appeared as copywriter Freddy Rumsen. He has made guest appearances on television shows such as The Nanny, Two and a Half Men, Malcolm in The Middle, Criminal Minds and Blossom.

In the 2012 film God Bless America he portrays Frank, a man whose contempt for superficiality and meanness in American society sends him over the edge and into a killing spree.

In the 2013 Pixar film Monsters University he provides the voice of Don Carlton, a middle-aged monster who is a college student and salesman.

Joel makes his home in Los Angeles with his wife and family and is an avid golfer. He is a partner with brothers Brian, Bill and John in the Caddy Shack Restaurant.

Bob Derkach – Musical Director

Bob has been keyboard player for Whose Live Anyway since it’s inception in 1999. He also performs with Drew Carey’s Improv All-Stars and with Women Fully Clothed . Bob was the musical director/composer/keyboardist for The Second City Theater mainstages in Toronto ON, Edmonton AB and Santa Monica CA from 1981-2006.

In addition to his continuing compositional and sound design work for film, television, dance and theater, Bob’s soundscape ‘The Winds of Mars’ opens Visions of Mars , which is an extra-terrestrial DVD-ROM artifact created by The Planetary Society as a time-capsule greeting for future settlers of Mars. It remains on-deck NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander which successfully landed in the northern arctic region of Mars on May 25th, 2008.

Bob has released 6 CDs of original electronic and piano music available on iTunes and at CD Baby. Visit his website bobderkachmusic.com. Turn up the speakers and click on the Planets!